Breakdown In The Jungle of Nool
by OtterFrog
Summary: How would the story change if something awful happened and nobody heard the Whos after all? Well, somebody has to think of these things!


Nool Breakdown

**What would have happened if that last 'Yop!' didn't make it through? Or Jojo dropped the horn? Or if the animals still couldn't hear them? Let's entertain this rather morbid thought for just a few minutes, shall we?**

Hey! Watch it! I'm walking here too, you know!

Oh that's ok. No apologies needed. I should be used to it by now. I'm usually much faster and I can move around pretty good, but as you can see, I've got a bit of a load here.

Oh, you'll carry it for me? That's very nice of you. Yeah, it's a bag of peanuts. I'm taking it to a friend. Trying to get him cheered up. Snap him out of his depression.

Yeah, 'the crazy elephant'. He's my best friend. I'm Morton, the mouse. No, you don't have to apologize for anything. I guess he –is- crazy. That's why I bring him peanuts. He won't hardly even eat anymore.

'What happened?' What d'you mean, what happened?? Hey, you new to the Jungle of Nool? Oh, you are. And you've heard of the 'crazy elephant' already. Figures. Well, I guess I can tell you the story. At least this way you'll get the truth. Ask anybody else and who knows what version you'll get!

Ok, it all started last Spring. It was just a normal day, nothing special about it but Horton somehow found this……speck. On a flower.

Yeah, I said 'speck'. A little tiny dot of dust that landed on this pink clover flower. I didn't see anything different about it from any other speck floating around anywhere but Horton got this idea that he heard little voices coming from that speck! Where he got the idea from, I dunno. Maybe he ate a bad peanut or something. Anyway he said there were people living on it. And he even said it had a mayor.

I guess if you imagine voices coming from somewhere you'd want it to be somebody important. Why talk to a nobody, after all? Give that voice out of nowhere some rank!

Heh, yeah. Being a mayor on a speck wouldn't be all that important. But Horton was impressed by it. Then he got this idea that unless that speck was protected, that mayor and anybody else Horton thought lived on that would be destroyed. And once Horton gets an idea he follows it through to the end. Well….he used to, anyway. So he was off carrying that speck up to the top of Mount Nool. Guess he figured it was the safest place. Me, I would've stuck it in some hole somewhere if I thought anything lived on it. I dunno. Maybe in a glass jar?

But Kangaroo heard about him talking to this speck and she got all kind of crazy about it too. I guess she hated the idea of anybody going coo-coo in her precious little 'Nool kingdom'. She was just about obsessed with the idea of Horton talking to a clover as he was talking to it. And then she just straight forward demanded he give it to her and he refused. Bad idea, believe me. He even said 'No!' to her!

Ah, you've met the Kangaroo then? And you see what I'm talking about here. Yep. That's her. Would –you- tell her 'no' about something?

I wouldn't either. Keep the peace, I always say. Don't make waves! I'm too small to try anything anyway.

So, where was I? Oh yeah, Horton's off to Mount Nool. I wished the Kangaroo had just left him to do that. Then he would have stuck that speck on the mountain and come back down all happy and normal.

'Until he finds another speck'? Hmm, never thought of that. Oh well, we'll never know now, I guess.

The Kangaroo had even talked Vladd to attack Horton and destroy the speck. I heard about that plan from some flying squirrels and I tried to warn him. 'Get rid of the clover, Horton!" I told him! But then he said 'But I promised the Mayor!' That's when he said that speck had a mayor and it confused me for a moment. First voices from a speck then it's a mayor? I thought sure he was cracking right then. So he goes on about how he said what he meant…no,…he meant what he said and he said what he meant. 'An elephant's faithful 100 percent.' I always get that messed up. I tried again, told him to keep watching the skies!!

'Who's Vladd? Oh, just the biggest meanest vulture you'll ever see. Yeah, real ugly too. Just hope you never meet him. Trust me, you won't like him.

So Vladd attacked him, got the flower then dumped it down into a huge field of clovers. You know what Horton did then? Yep, he went down there and picked and picked and picked clovers until he found one he thought had the speck.

No, I don't know if he ever got the right one. I guess he just got tired of picking and one speck's as good as another.

That Kangaroo was furious when she learned he was back on this talking-to-a-speck-on-a-clover deal. She could've bit nails in half, she was that mad. Me, personally, I would have just let him go. I mean c'mon. Who was it hurting? Let him talk to a speck on a flower. Sure it made him look the idiot but the speck was easy to ignore. A speck's not all that big, after all. And when it's held by an elephant it seems even smaller. Well, I guess you could ignore it until he started setting it up with a coconut drink and caring for it like it was an actual living thing. Still, I suppose one could get used to that too. Everybody has a vice or problem, right? I do, I bet you do too. Right?

Well….that could be considered a bit weird but hey, who am –I- to judge? You're the one that has to live with it, not me. Yeah, I got some strange habits too. Who doesn't?

Yeah, so does the Kangaroo. But if she does, I don't wanna know. You know? She's weird enough as it is.

So anyway, Horton's back to talking to a mayor on a speck on a clover and the Kangaroo's fit to be tied. So she figured he might as well be too. She got all the rest of the animals all stirred up and believing if they let Horton keep on like this the entire jungle was in trouble! I don't know how, but it was supposed to cause some sort of breakdown.

Yeah, maybe you're right. I didn't think of it like that. Hmm, a new sort of contagious mental disease. That's pretty good thinking. Never thought of it like that.

Hey, you're pretty smart! Too bad the Kangaroo didn't think of that. She said some reasons but they all kind of fell flat to me. Your idea has more merit. I'll have to mention that somewhere.

So yeah, whatever the reason Kangaroo gave, it was good enough for the rest of the jungle guys. They ran off and had poor Horton surrounded before he even k new what was happening. Kangaroo gave him a chance to say the whole thing was made up and he was just pretending to hear voices but Horton couldn't do it. He just couldn't! And then he went and made it worse. Not only did he say the mayor lived on that speck but he had 96 daughters and one son named Jojo. And they shared a bathroom.

All on that speck. Yeah.

No,I don't know what a bathroom is either. Don't think I've ever seen one around here. Maybe it's a big pool. Enough room for a bath, I guess.

Then he goes and adds something like 'a person's a person, no matter how small.' Yeah, he's pretty poetic. At least, he used to be.

Well, that really pushed the Kangaroo over. She yelled for the Wilkershons, that's that huge family of monkeys you see around here, to rope and cage Horton. And of course they did. They like pushing people around. Horton fought with all the strength he had but there was just too many, you know? Can't fight the Wilkershons. Remember that. They're just too many.

So he was stuffed in this cage and the Kangaroo grabbed the clover. Oh poor Horton was so upset! He was shouting and carrying on that if we'd only stop and listen we'd hear the people on the speck. We tried, we really did. Stopped everything and really really listened. But we heard nothing. Then the Kangaroo did what she said she was going to and dropped it into a pot of boiling beezlenut oil.

There. End of speck. End of clover. End of problem. Right?

Did you ever hear an elephant scream? Oh, pray that you don't! It's the most awful sound you'll ever hear. I still hear it in my dreams. Horton gave this horrible loud scream and then he just collapsed. They opened the cage to let him out but he was laid there in a heap of limp flesh. He had his ears over his eyes and he was crying. Crying that he heard them die. That he heard their death screams. The voices were begging him to help them and he couldn't. Then they died. He said he heard it all.

It made the fur on my back rise up, I can tell you. Creeped me out for sure!

Everybody started wandering away then, just wanting to get back to normal. But Horton couldn't. I think his mind went with that clover in that pot. He wouldn't leave that spot.

Yeah, that's where he stays. You can see him right there. Yeah, he's got another clover but he never talks to it. He'll hang on to it until it wilts and falls apart then he goes and gets another. He'll just stand there with that stricken look in his eyes. He hardly says more than a few words to anybody, even me. Yeah, he is the skinniest elephant you're ever going to see. Like I said, he hardly even eats.

Let you talk to him? Why? What are you going to say? "How are you?"

Ok, hey, if you want to talk to him, go right ahead. It's a free jungle after all. Hey Horton! Look! It's me! And I got you more peanuts!

Yeah, this here's the new guy. He helped me get these to you. No, no, here. Yes, it's a peanut. Put it in your mouth and eat it. No, drop the flower first.

Oh rats, I shouldn't have said that. Come on, Horton! It's me, Morton! Your best friend! Come back here and eat something!

Yes! Listen to him, Horton! Eat something! It won't hurt you! Come on!

Oh well, it was a good try but as you can see, sometimes nothing works. One of these days I know I'm going to come down here and he'll be gone. I'm dreading that day and yet, kind of welcoming it too. Then all of his troubles will be over. No more ghostly screams. No more memory of a mayor and his 97 kids.

You'll help me carry the peanuts out here every day? That's awful nice of you. Yeah, I do appreciate the help. I'm the only one he has now, nobody else will even meet his eyes. They're just too…spooky, you know? Haunted.

Yeah, poor Horton. What else can you say?

Poor poor Horton.


End file.
